In many types of sport fishing, such as fishing from boats and piers, and fishing on a bank or shore, anglers have a container or ice chest nearby for keeping recently-caught fish. When a fish is caught, the container is opened; with ice chests the fish is placed on ice in the ice chest.
Keeping the fish on ice serves a number of purposes such as maintaining the freshness, and sometimes taste, of the fish, as well as keeping the fish meat at a consistency that facilitates cleaning and filleting. It is very convenient to keep a fish in this way without having to clean the fish immediately, particularly when the fishing gets "hot" and the angler is catching many fish in a short time period.
Several problems are related to the prior art method of placing fish in a container or in an ice chest. Initially, while holding a rod and reel in one hand and a fish in the other, an angler must either set the rod down or try to open the container while holding the rod. In a crowded boat this can require great dexterity, particularly with a wiggling live fish of any size. Once an ice chest is open, and each time it is open, ice therein is subjected to warm air. Consequently, the ice melts more quickly than it would if the chest remained closed.
There has long been a need for a container into which a live fish can be quickly and efficiently inserted. There has long been a need for an ice chest for keeping fish in which ice therein is subjected to a minimum of hot air outside the chest.